Graphics Problems, Major UI Elements Not Displayed: High Sierra Guest on Sierra Host

[vmxmr]

I am running the latest VMware Fusion 10 on the latest Sierra 10.12.6 host, running the latest High Sierra 10.13.4 guest. I need to run Java in a browser to connect to an old HP Procurve network switch, and I do not want to install Java on my host Mac computer. This is a perfect use-case for a virtual machine! I installed Java 8, release 161 on that High Sierra guest, and it failed. (Note: I installed the same Java on a Windows 7 guest and it works fine.)

The host computer is a 2016 15 inch MacBook Pro with Core i7, 16 Gbytes of RAM and plenty of drive space. The guest has been configured with 2 cores and 6144 Gbytes of RAM memory.

PROBLEM DESCRIPTION:

Graphics elements are missing from the Safari browser with Java. The graphics display that shows which ports are active on the Procurve switch are missing.

Worse: I tried installing Firefox. It is missing major graphics elements and is not useable. The navigation bar is missing, as are the title bar, the three "gel" buttons (Close, Minimize, and Expand), and much more. The window is frameless. The problem is consistent and repeatable.

-> Has anyone encountered these issues with High Sierra guests?

[ColoradoMarmot]

Fusion doesn't provide 3D acceleration for OSX Guests (no engine does), so you're probably hitting that.

[vmxmr]

Fusion doesn't provide 3D acceleration for OSX Guests (no engine does), so you're probably hitting that.

Good point, but I would have expected the graphics to render on the screen anyway. Shouldn't the CPU render the images (albeit slower than with 3D acceleration) if graphics acceleration is not available?

Is VMware Fusion telling the operating system (or Java virtual machine or the app itself) that it has graphics capabilities that it does not have? That would be bad behavior on Fusion's part. At least it works under a Windows 7 guest, but I would have preferred to run it under a macOS guest.

[ColoradoMarmot]

no, and particularly not in java.  Some functions are 3d-dependent.  It's a limitation of OSX, which doesn't provide the hooks that windows does, and all apple hardware provides acceleration, so the OS doesn't have non-accelerated code anymore.

[bluefirestorm]

I don't have the Firefox render issues that you have on a High Sierra 10.13.4 guest on a Sierra 10.2.6 host. I am using Fusion 8.5.10 though not Fusion 10. Host hardware is 2014 Macbook Pro without discrete graphics, only Intel Iris Pro 5200.

You could try adding the line

mks.enableMTLRenderer = "FALSE"

to the High Sierra VM vmx configuration file.

I don't know if that would have any effect since macOS don't have 3D graphics acceleration. But Fusion 10.x uses Metal by default for 3D acceleration enabled VMs.

If that doesn't have any effect, you may want to check whether it makes any difference if either the Iris 540/550 graphics or AMD Radeon is active when the High Sierra VM is powered up.